Sometimes, when I'm stoned, I like to take advantage of the information out there on the world wide web. Somehow, smoking makes me wanna learn....especially science.
This is what I learned today:
A Tesseract is a mathematical way of explaining the fourth dimension.
1. Take a point: that's the first dimension.
2. Now square it. Once you've squared your point, you have a line, which is the second dimension.
3. Now square that. Once you square your line, you have a square.
4. Now square your square, you have a cube.
5. Now square your cube. *Ta-Da!* You now have a tesseract.
In this classic children's adventure story "A Wrinkle on Time" by Madeleine L'Engel, time travel is explained as a tesseract.
It is a common misconception that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. This example from that book explains this theory:
A small insect is on one side of a lady's skirt. The bug wishes to travel to the other side of the skirt. If he must crawl around the skirt in a straight line, this is quite a distance. However, if the skirt folded (or "wrinkled") so that the point where the bug is and the point where he wishes to be are brought together, he has practically no distance to travel. In the novel, this "folding" idea is extended onto a grander scale. Now imagine that one can "fold" space, making it possible to travel to planets light-years away in mere seconds.
ps. this was borught about by the use of the term on today's episode of 'Andromeda'. It was also the name of a deathmetal band MyJerm sang for when he was in highschool
This is what I learned today:
A Tesseract is a mathematical way of explaining the fourth dimension.
1. Take a point: that's the first dimension.
2. Now square it. Once you've squared your point, you have a line, which is the second dimension.
3. Now square that. Once you square your line, you have a square.
4. Now square your square, you have a cube.
5. Now square your cube. *Ta-Da!* You now have a tesseract.
In this classic children's adventure story "A Wrinkle on Time" by Madeleine L'Engel, time travel is explained as a tesseract.
It is a common misconception that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. This example from that book explains this theory:
A small insect is on one side of a lady's skirt. The bug wishes to travel to the other side of the skirt. If he must crawl around the skirt in a straight line, this is quite a distance. However, if the skirt folded (or "wrinkled") so that the point where the bug is and the point where he wishes to be are brought together, he has practically no distance to travel. In the novel, this "folding" idea is extended onto a grander scale. Now imagine that one can "fold" space, making it possible to travel to planets light-years away in mere seconds.
ps. this was borught about by the use of the term on today's episode of 'Andromeda'. It was also the name of a deathmetal band MyJerm sang for when he was in highschool
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i'd give my last nickle and dime to come visit you hunnie....oOooOoooo how i'd love to meet you in person!!!!